UPDATE: ‘Doctor Who’ 50th Anniversary Special Scores In U.S. & UK

UPDATE, 4:05 PM: It turns out BBC America got some good news from the Doctor too: The network’s simulcast and later primetime replay of the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special Doctor Who: The Day Of The Doctor drew 3.6 million viewers Saturday. The 2.4 million viewers for the 2:50 PM ET simulcast marked the channel’s best numbers ever in Live+Same Day, netting 1.2 million adults 25-54. Beyond lucrative Saturday movie theater screenings (and more today) in conjunction with NCM Fathom Events, the UK series’ special event was No. 1 on Twitter for the day among all TV shows and set records on Tumblr. The heat helped BBC America’s new fantasy series Atlantis, which piggybacked Doctor Who on the network’s Supernatural Saturday with 838,000 total viewers in the premiere of the 13-part series. Next big appointment for BBC America to see the Doctor? This Christmas, it will premiere Matt Smith’s final episode, Doctor Who’s Christmas Special.

PREVIOUS, SUNDAY PM: The 50th anniversary Doctor Who special The Day Of The Doctor was simulcast across the globe on Saturday, airing in over 90 countries from the U.S. and UK to such places as Australia, Brazil, Botswana, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Mexico. It also played 1,500 moviehouses in the UK, the U.S., Canada, Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and elsewhere. The 75-minute special won high praise from the press in Britain where it averaged a whopping 10.2M viewers on BBC One. The primetime broadcast drew a 37.4% share and peaked with 10.61M viewers. It was the most watched episode of the series since Christmas Day 2010, according to overnight ratings. The special brought to a close months of Who celebration mania that proved the 50-year-old series still has legions of fans the world over. Of particular note in The Day Of The Doctor were appearances by Tom Baker, who played the 4th Time Lord in the 70s, and a brief glimpse of Peter Capaldi who will soon take over as the 12th Doctor. He next appears in the Doctor Who Christmas episode which will mark the exit of the 11th Doctor, Matt Smith.